On the same day that Emmanuel Fejokwu confirmed his move from West Ham United to Club Brugge, former Hammers kid Harrison Ashby put pen to paper himself.
If Fejokwu’s departure is the continuation of a worrying trend – a man capped by England and the Netherlands at youth level is the latest highly-rated youngster to slip through the net – then Ashby is a cautionary tale.
While the pathway to first-team involvement at West Ham United may appear overrun with nettles and thickets in the eyes of some, the grass is not always greener elsewhere.
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Fejokwu leaves for Club Brugge…
Five months after Gideon Kodua joined Luton Town on a permanent basis, Ashby arrives in what becomes the fourth loan spell of his post-Hammers career.
As David Moyes confirmed at the time, it was Ashby who decided to leave West Ham for Newcastle. Back in January 2023, Hammers fans were left reeling by the news that one of their most promising homegrown talents had joined a Premier League rival for what looked like a bargain fee of £3 million.
Three and a half years later, Ashby is still awaiting his first-team debut in black and white. With his St James’ contract expiring in 2027, it would be a massive surprise at this stage if that ever changed.
Former West Ham United kid Harrison Ashby leaves Newcastle for Luton loan
‘It probably hasn’t quite worked out for him how he wanted it to’, Luton boss and former West Ham teammate Jack Wilshere tells the official Hatters website. A pretty sizeable understatement.
“I was playing alongside Harrison for West Ham when he made his debut, and you could tell that he had something,” Wilshere adds. “Technically, he was always clean. He was very young then, but physically he was good.
“I kept an eye on him going to Newcastle because Eddie Howe is someone I worked with and a coach that I respect, so I always thought that he’d be good for him.
“It probably hasn’t quite worked out for him how he wanted it to, but Eddie has definitely done a good job of developing him as a player, but also as a person. He’s grown up so much. He’s someone I see who can fit straight into this group and help us on the pitch.”
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If you asked the West Ham supporters during Ashby’s breakout where they envisaged him at the age of 24, few would have said the third-tier of English football.
The full-back hasn’t even proven himself capable of standing out at that lowly level. During a loan spell at promotion challengers Bradford in the second half of last season, Ashby started only two of a possible 19 games.
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Injuries certainly haven’t helped. Ashby was limited to a mere 13 appearances at Swansea City in 2023/24 due to muscle and hamstring issues. A thigh problem saw him spend the first half of 2025 on the sidelines before moving to Yorkshire.
“It’s hard for all loan players in January,” Bradford boss Graham Alexander said when explaining Ashby’s benchwarming role for the Bantams. “Especially if you join a club that has had a really good first half of the season. To break your way into that team is difficult.”
Almost impossible, as it turned out.
Yet, as Bradford came from behind to beat Wycombe Wanderers in the spring, Ashby capped a Man of the Match performance with a moment of real quality; a reminder as to why some at West Ham felt he was ‘the real deal’.
He flicked the ball past his marker on the right wing before curling a glorious pass into the stride of the onrushing Bradford forward.
That this is one of the few stand-out moments of Harrison Ashby’s senior career – in the year of his 25th birthday – may be a warning for all those, like Fejokwu, who feel their development would be better served away from West Ham.
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